Home audio & video forum: Poll: In your opinion, do you think HD DVD has a chance?

Not sure what point you're trying to make.

Big business has continued to use Beta -- all professional tape recording and editing is done on Beta and then transferred to VHS or DVD for consumers.

Any "big business" will have a professional Beta player in its AV room.

I am not buying, especially at the prices they are selling for either format of enhanced DVD player. I have been burned once(shame on them) when it came to buying VHS or Beta VCR's so will not decide on purchasing a DVD player until the format is decided. Save your money you might be buying into the wrong technology (shame on you).
Rick P.

The answer is nobody knows for sure right now. Unfortunately, early adopters always take the greatest risk to take advatantage of the newest technologies.

Competition is a good thing as it promotes advancement in technolgies that might never make it to market otherwise.

Perhaps a combo HD/Blu-Ray player is the way to go for now.

Me? I have learned to be patient and wait for a format to win out (VHS vs. Beta, I chose Beta-better picture by far).

Until then......I'll let you guys help make the decision with your buying power, and I'll be happy with whichever one wins out.

I bought my Toshiba early, I still not conceeding to blu-ray. HD DVD is cheaper to manufacture, the technology is easier to work with, the transition is much less work and investment. So why does blu-ray have an advantage? Because of PS3. I know, I just bought a PS3, for gaming, but I will use the HDMI and RENT Blu-Ray exclusive DVD's for it.

However, Blu-Ray is still not a solid or cheap technology. All it takes is a couple of major manufacturers to make HD DVD players under $200 and a $20 HD DVD's and the battle would be over.

Then theirs the Porn industry, the 12 billion dollar industry that is being told it can't press Blu-Ray because Disney won't have thier films pressed in the same factory!

Sony has NEVER won a format war, NEVER! So I have no faith in them this time either.

Let's face it, who is going to buy a player that does not play their favorite movies? Not me. As I was torn between the movies I would not be able to watch no matter which format I chose, I did the only thing I could, WAIT. For now, I will wait for the war of formats to get to the next level, and even then, if HD is still around, I may wait. The scoop from other web sources is that there is another contender coming into the ring. Who is to say that while Blue, and HD are fighting it out, somehting else doesn't come along and snatch the carrot from both of them.
The big push by Comcast, using new VOD HD boxes with their super fast fiber cable system, will snatch up their share of the HD dollars from both HD and Blue. I have a big DVD collection that I seldom watch. I watched most of them exactly one time. If I had rented them, and rented the ones I watched twice, I would be thousands of dollars ahead. Once the VOD service is going strong, there will be no more trips to Blockbuster, so sell your stock now, while there is still time. VOD will be the end of Blockbuster unless they find a new game. So HD VOD will bring the end to the Blue,HD and rental markets. Not to say that they will go away over night, but just like Beta, it will move slowly into oblivion

YES, if not then the best HDTV picture and sound we will get would be from locals,sat.,cable.
it is rumoured that there are little more than a dozen Bluray replication lines in active commercial use (particularly for BD50), compared to literally HUNDREDS installed for HD DVD. Furthermore, the cost of new Bluray commercial lines (of over $1 million dollars each), in addition to their continued reported issues with manufacturing yields, means that it will likely be a VERY LONG TIME, before Bluray will be able to support a true mass market of consumers.

As such, it is my belief that Bluray will maintain their higher pricing for players for as long as possible, in order to prevent to much demand for discs. So, instead of getting down to mass market pricing of $100 to $150 per player, it is likely that Bluray will continue to maintain player prices of between $300 and $600.

How on earth do you expect Bluray to be able to produce the volumes of discs required for a true mass-market, with the FEW BD replication lines in active service? How can your research have been so blind to the HUNDREDS of HD DVD replication lines available??
TWO YEARS to get replication capacity to the same level that HD DVD is already at today.

And most of all will your Blu-Ray player work?
After all most HDTV customers are not into a game console for their racks

Sony BetaMax

Because Blu-Ray Disks has a biggest advantage to winning out deals with major studios and to create devices for Blu-Ray, it establishes the industry standards and the successors of DVDs in the future. HD DVD has no features that is worth considering for comsumers everywhere and the momentum of HD DVD format is weak.

Who cares? I mean, I still use a TI 99/4A for some things!

And, I have a CoCo I, CoCo II, and CoCo III that have useful life.

Who needs the latest "whiz-bang"?

I dont think that the porn industry has had an impact on the desicion on blu ray adn hddvd.
But now there are about 274 movies on stock at http://www.adultbluray.com

For people who say "of course it will, [these movies] are only available on HD-DVD blah blah blah" once the last two companies wise up, their content will be all BLU-RAY, and there can be no exclusives if there is only ONE format!!!

because "they" are going to do whatever "they" want. Remember the Beta vs. VHS war? That particular chapter of history tells us that whichever one of these formats wins, it may not necessarily be the best quality. Beta was thought to be better, but VHS was more convenient. He who has the most toys ($), wins

The biggest difference between the VHS and Beta battle was that the previous technology was "nothing". In other words, the public wanted to watch movies badly and only had two choices. The public voted with their wallet for the cheapest version which is VHS.

Fast forward to today and the public really had three choices: HD DVD, Blu-Ray or simply wait and see and watch standard DVD.

The public again voted with their wallet for the cheapest choice which is the wait and see choice. The early adopters were the exception.

I always believed that time is on Blu Ray's side because Blu Ray had the superior technology with their superior capacity and when time passes, the competitor with the superior technology wins. I pity the HD DVD advocates for touting that they had the cheaper alternative when in fact they were not.

Another point: "movie downloading" is the future and the movie executives sees this coming in a few years. The Movie Industry had to break the stalemate for fear of losing billions of potential revenue of future DVD sales. Just look as the music downloading business compared to the CD sales.

What we are now seeing is predictable and unavoidable. HD-DVD is doomed just like the vinyl record industry. Technology is changing rapidly and since the technology associated with HD-DVD is limited, there is absolutely no chance of HD DVD making a come back.

Of course they have a chance to hang in there mainly due to affordability.
Its still the consumers who chooses, not studios.
I mean they just wont disappear in a week or two, but with a few changes or updates by Toshiba, they can hang on.

As long as Paramount doesn't try to wiggle out of its multi-million dollar contract, the war will stay just as bitter as ever. My recommendation: do not reward any of Sony, Toshiba, or Microsoft's childish ways by buying either player. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!